The Antwerp Concours d’Elegance is the first major car event for us after the summer break, and it never fails to impress. This event has a special place in our hearts, as the 2021 edition was one of the first events in Europe after nearly two years of confinement. The 2021 edition was the best Antwerp Concours we have seen, but the 2022 and 2023 events also delivered on all fronts.
This one-day event has 19 years of history, showcasing rare and exotic sports- and luxury cars, prewar cars, racecars and one-offs from all European countries. Initially, it was launched in 2005 in the heart of Antwerp but moved to more fitting castle settings throughout the years (for more background, check out their website).
The event’s official parking lot (opposite the Castle) is reserved for oldtimers and offered exciting specimens even before one validates the ticket. The visitor cars included all the usual suspects of a perfect cars ‘n’ coffee gathering, like a trio of Alfa GTVs, 911s and this time quite a few Lotus to honour the brand’s 75th anniversary.
If you did not come with a classic car, you must pass the parking lot and park in the neighbouring streets. Thus, the neighbourhood gets filled with impressive car boxes towed by top-of-the-line SUVs, sports- and luxury cars.
The Belvédère Castle in Wijnegem hosted the event for the 13th time, using the large open spaces around the Castle. The cars were lined up per topic, which the organisers announced well before the event. The entrants are usually accompanied by a few high end contemporary cars.
The event follows the tradition of Concours, where a jury inspects each car, and the owners open up the cars and start the engine for them. All you have to do is follow the referees in their distinctive uniforms while they are inspecting the vehicles, and you got yourself a priceless spectacle. The Jury includes experts and sportsmen, and this year’s show featured a section with young members.
The theme of barn-find & preservation: unrestored cars from 1900 to 1960 brought quite a few impressive mastodons to the front yard of the Castle. Many of them face a brighter future as cars like the Delahaye 135 are instant-get collectors’ items. Other categories included pre-war style & luxe and pre-war sport & competition, and there was a special category dedicated to Belgium’s FN motorcycles.
The largest selections honoured automotive anniversaries. The furthest corner of the backyard was filled with British cars celebrating 75 years of Lotus with a tribute to Colin Chapman.
Lotus also joined with a few contemporary cars, including the latest addition, the electric SUV Eletre.
Beyond that, we loved to see again the copper-brown Eclipse from the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only (albeit a replica). Earlier this year, the car was parked in Autoworld’s BBurago box advertising the truly awesome James Bond exhibition Bond in Brussels.
The other anniversary topic honoured 75 years of Porsche. This lineup also included quite a few exciting specimens, like the 1956 Porsche 356 A, a police 911 from 1976 with the livery of Belgium’s Gendarmerie, a 930 Flatnose with pop-up headlights and a clean Turbo of the 930 series in a beautifully elegant black colour. The latest car is a 911 Targa celebrating the 50th anniversary of the model series (curiously, it was not there last year for the 50th anniversary line-up).
We also loved the segment on Italian exotics, toys for playboys that summoned elegant luxury vehicles built in Italy between 1955 and 1985.
The selection included a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, a personal favourite of ours, but also that of the Jury, as the car won the best of show award. The Red 250 SWB was bought in 1994 by Reza Pahlavi, the oldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The last Shah of Iran was a famous car collector, and the son clearly entered the Shah’s footsteps.
The SWB faced quite some competition, like the 1956 Lancia Aurelia Florida (only 30 cars were built). It’s like a love child of a mastodon and a great white shark.
The Lancia Florida I was an experimental car based on the Lancia Aurelia, built in collaboration with Pinin Farina. Only four cars were built in the first generation, developed in 1955.
There were two Maserati 3500 GT coupés (the golden one took the Best provenance award), along with a red 5000 GT.
The blue 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 stole the show (taking the Best Design award) to the extent that we could not take decent photos.
The red 1971 De Tomaso Pantera bagged the award in the category Italian Exotics 1960-1985 and the white 1981 Countach PL400S was a true timestamp of the ‘80s. By the way, it was one and a half Countach, as it was accompanied by a children’s car with the same colour combination (like a mini-me: ) ).
Some connoisseurs have issues with inviting electric cars to Concours events, but even they can’t deny the category dedicated to electric past and present, illustrating that history repeats itself.
The curators managed to fetch quite a few memorable specimens, like the white Peugeot VLV (Voiture Legere de Ville, meaning small city car) from 1941, a response to the WW II fuel shortage.
The 1930 Ford A electric (from the barn-find collection of Mahymobile) is an answer to the same challenge, though coming from the other end of the world. The car was converted into an electric vehicle in response to the fuel shortage during World War II. A rather fitting question would be here: “Was this trip really necessary?”
In case you missed the punch line, we recommend you google it, as the catchphrase hidden in many movies and cartoons to warn about the needs of the US war economy (yes, even they had to ration fuel). The third one was a Detroit Electric car from 1916.
We only missed the Jamais Contente, though the car at Autoworld is only a replica (but we also got to see the official original vehicle of the Jenatzy Foundation).
We also loved the category monoposto & racing barchetta from 1935 to 1965, lining up classic grand prix race cars before the era of spoilers.
The 1937 Maserati 6CM Monoposto won this category, but we can’t deny that we admired the 1938 Siata 500 record car. The flat silver race car was converted from a Topolino using a Siata Supertesta cylinder head on the Fiat engine block, tuned with a compressor.
With this car, Afredo Bosi planned to break the world speed record in the 500 class held by Count Giovanni Lurani with the Nibbio 500. Ultimately, he did not make it, but the Siata was entered in several races in the late 40s.
The front gate of the Castle was guarded by cars from the pre-WWI era. The first car was a 1904 Pipe Series E 15CV that took the best Barn-find car title.
Our third time at the Antwerp Concours d’Elegance proved to be a time well spent. The nearly 100 cars selected by the organisers excelled without exception. Even the visitor parking of the Concours could make it a standalone event.
